Ranchi: As a 28-year-old Jesuit Imam, Fr Stan Swamy first arrived at Jharkhand, then part of Bihar was not divided, to “live and understand” Ho’s tribal life in Chaibasa.
What he saw and naturally took him to be the voice of the poor and marginalized until his death in custody of the judiciary at the age of 84 on Monday.
His colleagues remembered how Framy, while learning Ho’s life, felt the need to further sharpen his understanding of academic sociology and go to Belgium to pursue a one-year course in this matter.
Even though he was chosen for a doctorate in sociology there, he preferred to return to Chaibasa.
“I first met him in Bengaluru in the 1980s when he was the director of the Indian Social Institute.
He drove on the jeep to accept me.
Really humble movement,” said Balaram social activist.
“Later, in the 1990s, he came to Jamshedpur and lived in Mangga as our neighbor,” he added.
Fr Swamy will collect kliping newspaper reports about the “suppression” of the tribal community.
“It’s time for me to be active in the anti-displacement movement,” Balaram said, quoting FR Swamy.
Many activists involved in the campaign for tribal rights are the view that FR Swamy, born in Tiruchirappalli far away in Tamil Nadu, chose to live in Jharkhand when the campaign against land acquisition for the Netarhat field shoot range and the Koylakaro project began in the early 90s , He found a place to stay at the Agriculture Training Center (ATC) run by Jesuit in Namom in Ranchi.
After settling in ATC, he founded Bagacha, an organization to fight for the causes of the poor and shortcomings, and began to fight for the adivatic struggle for constitutional rights.
In the following years, Fr Swamy connected himself with almost every campaign for tribal and dalit rights.
He led the Ranchi unit from the People’s Union for civil liberties and widely worked for the prevention of prevention of terrorism law (POCA).
He wrote a book based on a case study of tribes that were imprisoned under “Pota without evidence”.
While involved in Jangal Bachao Andolan, he highlighted the fate of thousands of adiviliases who were imprisoned for violating forest law.
He also struggles for forestry rights law and supports the implementation of the Panchayat extension to act scheduled areas.
Imam Jesuit – Activists who turned to feel strong government measures when he led the adivatic battle for administrative autonomy in scheduled areas, known as the “pathalgarhi movement.” He and other campaigners were slapped with a criminal case by the Government of Raghubar Das for Facebook posting their campaign.
“We cannot identify him with a certain movement.
He will be the first person to raise his voice every time there is a violation of civil rights,” said Anand Kumar Singh, former Secretary General PUCL (Jharkhand), said.